GENOA – A group of two Egyptians and a Tunisian, living in Liguria, Lombardy and Piedmont, have been arrested for terrorist association, having wanted to sign up to ISIS, police sources say Thursday.

 The men “hid their radicalization with a very normal life,” according to investigators, despite being responsible for the spreading of Jihadist material on the web and directing combatants from North Africa towards Syria and Libya under the instruction of the Islamist State.

 They themselves also wanted to sign up to the ISIS troop and had already sworn loyalty to the caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Sunni militant jihadist terrorist organisation.

 The three men have been arrested by the Carabinieri under an ‘anti-terrorism blitz.’ The public prosecutor of Genoa has accused the three of terrorist association with the objective of international terrorism.

 A fourth person has escaped capture and is thought to be hiding abroad, police sources claim.

 The two Egyptians, not immediately identified, are brothers. One worked as a pizza chef, the other was living off redundancy payments. According to the prosecutor, Federico Manotti, the three presumed jihadists “lived completely normal lives thanks to hiding their radicalization.”

 The group had been found by the Italian police through internet activity -- specifically propaganda on certain sites associated with terrorism and the Islamic State –- and also the broadcasting and spreading of Islamic State material.

 From the evidence emerged so far, the three arrested were not planning terrorist attacks in Italy, investigators claim. Their main objective was to enrol with ISIS.

 The Italian Minister of the Interior, Angelino Alfano, said to Il Fatto Quotidiano, “this has been a successful investigation of great importance … our anti-terrorism laws work, and the security of our citizens, in this particular moment in which not one country is at zero risk, is the priority of our government.”

 sw